No doubt Bafana Bafana proved their critics wrong when they stormed the second stage of the 16-nation competition, after winning Group A ahead of Morocco, Angola and surprise package, Cape Verde Islands.
They also did their best to dominate Mali – Africa’s third best team at the moment. With their overall 54% ball possession throughout the game, Gordon Igesund’s boys showed much improvement and with either a stroke of luck or more alertness, could have wrapped the game before extra time.
In the end, the 1-1 draw and their eventual 1-3 loss on penalties was not enough justice for a side that had kept Southern Africa’s hopes alive and revived the 1996 memories of the region’s first ever triumph – by the same team in the same country.
With Zambia and Angola having already succumbed to West African domination in the first round, the expectations were too heavy on the host team, rank outsiders in an eight-team quarterfinal line-up that had seven West African nations.
From time immemorial, West and North African teams have dominated the Afcon and that does not auger well for the Southern African region, which has struggled to have itself counted among the best footballing regions.
South Africa have been one of the best performers since their admission to international soccer in the 1990s. When their star-studded “Class of ‘96” recorded the region’s first triumph – courtesy of their “Mandela Magic”, West Africa had already won it nine times, the North six times, Central Africa three times and the East once.
Sixteen years later, Southern Africa has had one more win, the North and West have 11 each, Central three and the East still have one.
What made that triumph even sweeter for the region is that on the way, Clive Barker’s Bafana Bafana had thrashed Cameroon and Ghana, both West African giants, 3-0 along the way, before they beat a North African side, Tunisia , 2-0 in the final.
They ended second, third and fourth in the following tournaments, lacing that with two FIFA World Cup qualifications in the process.
When all hope had been lost following Bafana Bafana’s downfall, Zambia, the 1994 finalists who fell 1-2 to West Africans Nigeria in that year’s ultimate stage, picked up the pieces last year, again following triumphs over West African giants – Ghana and the Ivory Coast. That was 16 years after the region’s first triumph.
Zambia became the first defending champions to fall in the first round in the tournament’s history and gave critics a chance to cement their claims that Chipolopolo’s triumph last year was “what we have always said – a fluke.”
The finals are not where all the rot manifested itself.
Six Southern African teams reached the last qualifying round, Botswana falling 1-7 to South Africa’s ultimate victors Mali and Mozambique bowing out 2-4 to North Africans Morocco. Zimbabwe lost 4-3 on the away goals rule to regional neighbours Angola, while Zambia salvaged regional pride with hard-fought 9-8 penalty win over East Africans Uganda.
As the tournament ends this weekend, a West African side will be crowned victor, while Southern Africa weeps at missed chances by the hosts, Angola’s lack of fighting power, Zambia’s inconsistency and an ever-bungling Zimbabwe Football Association.
Theories are many, but one agreed fact among the region’s soccer fans would be that another 16 year wait will just be too long for Southern Africa’s next triumph.
Post published in: Football